Might Avatar-Mediated Interactions Rehabilitate People Suffering from Aphasia?
Ulla Konnerup · VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) · 2013
Many people suffering from communication disabilities after a brain injury have difficulties coming to terms with their new self as disabled persons. Being unable to deal with these problems verbally exacerbates the condition. As a result they often isolate socially and develop low self-esteem. Identity-creation and language are strongly linked together they and there seems to be a lack of addressing identity and social construction in the communicative rehabilitation. Immersive virtual worlds (IVW) are becoming ever more popular in health care and medical training. Experiences from projects in California and Denmark indicate that there is a potential for communicative rehabilitation as well. Studies from Stanford University, California have shown that behavior in a virtual world might have a spillover effect in the real world. This paper argues why and how selfrepresentation and interactions in IVW might trigger relearning communication and contribute to the recovery of nerve lanes in the brain after an injury.